How the 0.00003 Percent Lives

[n2doc]

Meet your friendly neighborhood billionaire. He’s a 63-year-old married guy. He’s got just over $3 billion in the bank, including $600 million in cash. He made his own money on Wall Street. He went to Penn. He loves sports. That basic composite comes from Wealth-X and UBS’s new “census” of the world’s 2,325 billionaires, giving a rare view into how the 0.00003 percent lives. And they live very, very well.

Their ranks are growing, their fortunes swelling. They now control about 4 percent of the world’s wealth. That’s $7.3 trillion, enough to take Apple private twelve times over, say, or to pay off the entirety of the United States’ debt to China.

Our representative American billionaire made the bulk of his money in his 40s and 50s in finance. About half of his money is in private investments, like equity in his own firm. He keeps about 20 percent in cash, and a delicious 5 percent in real estate and “luxury assets,” presumably tamed jaguars and yachts with helicopter landing pads. He owns four houses, each worth about $20 million.

His wealth has grown in the past year, but he has not beaten the overall market. In part, that is because he holds so much cash, given that interest rates are so low and questions about the strength of the recovery remain. But there are other reasons, too.

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http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/09/how-the-000003-percent-lives.html

[hobbit709]

1. Time to dust off and oil up the guillotine.

[hifiguy]

31. Yesterday.

[BlueJazz]

2. Their clothes, glasses and her hat probably cost more than my house.

[Cleita]

3. Not to mention the cosmetic surgeries and enhacements

if that woman is in fact his wife and closer to his age than she looks.

[KoKo]

4. Recommend Read... Reminds me of this...

George Clooney with his new Bride who is a human rights attorney.

Although their wedding extravaganza makes me wonder .....

[lunatica]

6. Isn't it interesting how the breeze is always making the woman's hair look naturally wind blown

while the men's hair is perfect? That's what happens when you're one of the jet setting beautiful people.

[uppityperson]

14. Internationally acclaimed barrister Amal Alamuddin marries an acto

http://www.thebusinesswomanmedia.com/amal-alamuddin-marries-actor/

Amal Alamuddin, a 36 year old London-based dual-qualified English barrister and New York litigation attorney who has long been a high-profile figure in international refugee and human rights law has gone against the trend for professional women in her field and married… an actor.

Amal is an educated and successful career woman we’ve long admired. The high-flying barrister has notched up many career highs, including representing the controversial WikiLeaks whistleblower Julian Assange, and also has multilingual fluency in English, French and Arabic.

Amal attended St. Hugh’s College, Oxford University, earning her BA/LLB and receiving the Exhibitioner, Shrigley Award. She also attended New York University School of Law earning her LLM and receiving the Jack J. Katz Memorial Award. A true testament to her character is her decision to find time to serve on the expert panel of Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (formed by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague) to gather evidence of sexual crimes committed in conflict zones.
(clip)

He’s probably a nice man, but seems to be a bit clingy, as since she met him it’s hard to find a photo or footage of Amal without him hanging around in the background. We only hope he doesn’t hold her back from conquering the world. We think this George Clooney fellow has scored big time....

[lunatica]

5. Hey! He's a job creator!

With 4 houses worth millions each he's got an army of servants in each one, ready to cook, clean, drive and tend the vast gardens. and someone has to drive the boats and fly the helicopters and jets. And someone has to protect him and his stuff ya know. That's hundreds, if not thousands of jobs! Why would anyone be upset with that?

[kelliekat44]

15. Below minimum wage, though? nt

[lunatica]

17. I wasn't being serious

[kelliekat44]

20. I was nt

[lunatica]

30. Well in that case, yes it would be below minimum wage

We'd go back a Century when the entire family had to work 16 hours a day for starvation wages. Back to the days when there was nothing to fall back on like Social Security, minimum wage laws, child labor laws, unions or birth control. We'd be living in the 2nd Gilded Age, which is exactly what they want. If it was up to them, that's exactly what would happen.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

7. Clooney didn't make his money at my expense except when I patronized his movies ...

Clooney didn't make his money at my expense except when I patronize his movies which I usually enjoy.

[n2doc]

8. George is no where near the 0.0003% club

http://www.therichest.com/celebnetworth/celeb/actors/george-clooney-net-worth/

180 mil. Not poor, but honestly won.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. I know...But Poor George was brought into the conversation.

Plus from all accounts he's a totally unpretentious guy ...

[Cleita]

9. Pet peeve I have about prop 13 here in California and those

four houses. Every time I suggest we should fix prop 13, all the property owners get really pissed at me because they only pay 1% in property taxes. Fine. Leave the single family home alone, however, hotel sized mansions and the other three homes those billionaires own should pay 5%. Many of them are from out of state or foreign countries. Beverly Hills should be renamed Little Arabia for all the rich sheiks that own multiple homes there.

Before prop 13, property taxes in California paid for a free university education for our kids. It kept the homeless off the streets and got them the hospital care they needed. It paid welfare benefits for the poor and elderly. We could go back to that by making the likes of McCain, Romney, Oprah and others, who own properties in California but don't pay the taxes they should, pay for the privilege.

[justabob]

19. in general

I think it would be good if those gigantic homes were taxed at a higher rate, period.... over a certain square footage or whatever. I drive around my city and I see these monster houses being built... 5000 sf, 10000 sf, even bigger in the suburbs..... and it is crazy and such a waste. It really is the guilded age all over again, in so many ways. These houses are monuments to everything that is wrong in our contemporary society.

[Sopkoviak]

11. It would appear that they are attracted to younger looking women too

Someone should do a study of this phenomenon.

Maybe post it here when it's done.

Probably nobody would be interested though.

Just a thought.

[eppur_se_muova]

13. The term "trophy wife" is in common use, so I think people have noticed. nt

[hughee99]

22. Or perhaps their girlfrieds and wives just get a lot of work done.

If you have enough money, you can look like you're 30 when you turn 60.

[corkhead]

12. I feel like we are playing a real-life Monopoly game

where they own all of the properties, have hotels on all of them and have the privilege of not having to throw the dice like us unwashed rabble. No "go to jail, do not pass go", community chest, or chance for them. They just get to sit back and collect money from the rest of us schlubs.

[kelliekat44]

16. No matter how any of lives...we all go to the grave the same way...and our stuff is left behind for

another.

[moondust]

18. What if there was no stock market?

Closed down, boarded up? Outlawed like gambling casinos before Native American casinos and riverboat gambling?

And all the profits went to the people who spend their lives keeping things running--management and staff?

Nobody home in bed or out on the golf course getting grotesquely wealthy off the work of others simply because they own shares?

No one gutting pay and benefits, moving jobs offshore, evading taxes, buying up a Congress of deregulators, inventing tax inversions and other profitability tricks designed to impress stock markets and boost their stock price so the guys with all the shares can get much, much wealthier?

What if?

[hughee99]

21. Before there was a stock market, there was still this kind of wealth.

The world has never been a "you only get what you work for" kind of place. n/t

[moondust]

23. But it used to be much better balanced and much more just.

After WWII and before Reagan era financialization of the economy and "greed is good."

[hughee99]

25. Yes, but during that time, there was a stock market.

Your point runs counter to your first statement.

[moondust]

26. There was a stock market.

But it was a different animal before financialization led to all sorts of rapacious profitability tricks intended solely to boost stock prices on behalf of shareholders without concern for the social consequences.

[SammyWinstonJack]

24. ....

[valerief]

27. How many members of Congress does he own? nt

[Rex]

29. He owns the guy that owns a few Congress critters.

So rich, that labor is no longer required to make capital.

[Rex]

28. He doesn't have to make money from labor like the average millionaire.

He has so much money and assets, he can make money off of money and assets. No labor needed. He is King Bitcoin.